What If There Are No Whales?

In the heart of the season most whale tours from Tromsø find whales, but not all of them, and the odds fall at the end of January. No tour guarantees a sighting; what some offer is a second tour free if you see none, which only helps if you book early in your stay. The tour we would book is Arctic Resorts’ catamaran, which gives you a second tour free, rated 4.7 from 3,762 reviews and from $192 a person in current promotion (usually $226) (checked October 2026).

How likely you are to see whales

The operators give their own figures. Brim Explorer puts its success rate at over 95%, Arctic Adventure Tours says whales were spotted on over 98% of its Skjervøy RIB tours, and Arctic Resorts calls whale sightings on its overnight ship highly likely. These are the companies’ own numbers, with no published method behind them. Visit Tromsø says plainly that sightings cannot be guaranteed.

The reviews give a feel for the misses. Of the newest 350 reviews of Arctic Resorts’ catamaran, read on 29 October 2026, 268 give five stars, and the complaints are mostly from the last week of January 2026: the guides warned before departure that the orcas had usually left by then, one boat saw porpoises only, and one guest saw no whales but a strong display of northern lights on the way home. On Arctic Adventure Tours’ RIB the blank days in January 2026 drew the lowest scores, from guests whose boat found nothing while others nearby did. Brim Explorer's guests in late January 2026 were warned of rough seas and low chances before departure and offered a full refund or a later date if they chose not to sail; one who sailed anyway wrote that it was their last day in Tromsø, so a later date was no use.

So the honest answer: in November and December your chances on any of these tours are good; in the last days of January they are not, whatever success rate a company quotes.

The second-chance offers compared

On a phone, swipe the table sideways.

Offers and conditions from the GetYourGuide listings, read on 29 October 2026; Brim Explorer’s two-day rule and Arctic Whale Tours’ season wording from the companies’ own sites, read the same day. Every tour here can be cancelled free up to 24 hours before; a tour the operator cancels for weather is handled under the listing’s terms.

How to use a second chance

Book your whale tour for the first full day of your stay. If the sea stays empty, you still have days left for the free second tour, and if the first trip is cancelled for weather you can move it. A whale tour on your last day leaves the second-chance offers worth nothing.

Check early dates for the catamaran →

What raises your chances

The week matters most: mid-November to mid-January is safest, and the best time for whale watching has the detail. Time in the whale area matters next: the RIBs from Skjervøy spend about three hours on the water and the big catamarans one to two and a half, as set out in catamaran or RIB. The rest is weather and where the herring is that winter, which no booking can change.

Success rates, second-chance offers and conditions from the GetYourGuide listings, read on 29 October 2026, with Brim Explorer’s and Arctic Whale Tours’ no-whale terms from their own sites; guests’ accounts from the newest 350 reviews of Arctic Resorts’ catamaran safari and Arctic Adventure Tours’ RIB tour, read the same day. Visit Tromsø on sightings.